Long-lost Liverpool cousins reunited by poems written in the ECHO

Long lost cousins Margaret Berrington and Frank Byrne were reunited after seeing a poem in the Echo's letters page. Picture: Colin Lane

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A pair of long-lost cousins have been reunited after exchanging poems on the ECHO’s letters page.

Frank Byrne, 65, and Margaret Berrington, 72, hadn’t seen each other since 1992, but were reunited by Donna at the ECHO after an exchange of poems.

Frank had lived with Margaret and her mother Marie on Liffey Street in Toxteth when the pair were children, but Frank had moved away to Kirkby when he was seven.

The pair had kept in touch until they lost contact 22 years ago after Mr Byrne, a retired joiner, moved to Widnes.

He was a regular contributor of poems to the ECHO’s letters page, and Margaret had wondered for years if he was the same Frank Byrne who she had lived with as a child.

Eventually Margaret wrote a poem of her own in response, and when Frank saw it he knew it was his cousin.

He said: “I phoned the Echo and I spoke to Donna, and she said ‘don’t worry Frank, I’ll see what I can do for you.’

“So she wrote a letter for Margaret saying ‘your cousin Frank wants to get in touch with you’. When Margaret phoned me it was just as if we hadn’t been away.

“We talked about being kids, and when we were little.

“She said she’d been looking at my poems for ages and thinking ‘I wonder if that’s my Frank.”

Long lost cousins Margaret Berrington and Frank Byrne were reunited after seeing a poem in the Echo's letters page. Frank is pictured first on front row on the left and Margaret is on the front row, second in from the right

He added that the pair had enjoyed reminiscing about their childhood in Toxteth in the 1950s.

“Margaret was like an older sister to me. There were six kids in one house, and I remember it as a very happy time.

“We’d go on walks together and looking for frogs. She’d help us if anyone was bothering us too.”

Margaret added that the pair’s reunion was “emotional."

She added: "It’s unbelievable. I’m thrilled to bits. It was a very emotional reunion, he’s a great cousin.”